Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:
Debate Remorse
Iowa Republicans are so dissatisfied with this week's debate that they are considering another one before next month's caucuses. The Politco reports one well-placed state Republican said, "We'd prefer if the Des Moines Register debate did not leave a bad taste. Iowa deserves better than that."
Moderator Carolyn Washburn of the Register has been savaged for her performance in both debates — in which she avoided topics such as Iraq and immigration in favor of questions about things like the candidates New Year's resolutions.
Dana Milbank of The Washington Post calls Washburn "schoolmarmish" and advises, "Here's a resolution for Washburn: Try not to moderate any more presidential debates." Howard Kurtz of The Post called the debate "soporific." The Weekly Standard's Dean Barnett likened Washburn to "a latter-day Nurse Ratched." And Washburn's colleague, Des Moines Register columnist David Yepsen, said "The biggest problem with the debate was that it wasn't really a debate. Candidates got almost no opportunity to grill one another."
Skeptics Speak
As the United Nations climate conference winds down in Indonesia, a group of more than 100 scientists has sent a letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urging him to quit wasting time and resources fighting climate change, which the letter says cannot be stopped, because it is a natural phenomenon that has been around forever.
The letter maintains there has been no net global warming since 1998 and that, "significant new peer-reviewed research has cast even more doubt on the hypotheses of dangerous human-caused global warming."
Meanwhile, skeptical scientists say they were frozen out of much of the proceedings in Bali. the heartland institute says members of the international climate science coalition were kicked off the press schedule twice this week — and threatened with physical force if they did not vacate the press room.
Religious Persecution?
A high school student in Mission Viejo, California is suing his history teacher for repeated disparaging remarks against Christians.
Sophomore Chad Farnan recorded some of the statements by teacher James Corbett, including: "When you put on your Jesus glasses, you can't see the truth." Corbett also suggested churchgoers are more likely to commit rape and murder and said Christians are like Muslim fundamentalists who want women to, "stay pregnant, barefoot and in the kitchen and have babies until your body collapses."
The parent of another student has already removed her child from Corbett's classes saying, "the mockery of religion was a main focus in the classroom."
Corbett is not commenting and the school says it needs more time to look into the situation.
What's in a Name?
If you ever speak to Kenyan first lady Lucy Kibaki make sure to get her name right.
During a recent public event, one of her husband's aides mistakenly called her by the name of a woman rumored to be the president's second wife — so she hit him. Nairobi TV reports the man was whisked away by security forces who confiscated the camera that was shooting the ceremony.
— FOX News Channel's Martin Hill contributed to this report.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox